NIH Public Access Author Manuscript J Gerontol Geriatr Res. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2014 February 03.

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Published in final edited form as: J Gerontol Geriatr Res. 2013 December 1; 2(4): 134–. doi:10.4172/2167-7182.1000134.

Age-Related Treatment Disparities among Medicaid Beneficiaries with Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Heidi D Klepin1,*, Janet A Tooze1, Eun-Young Song1, Ann M Geiger2, and Kristie L Foley3 1Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA 2National

Cancer Institute, Rockville, North Carolina, USA

3Davidson

College, Davidson, North Carolina, USA

Abstract Objective—To evaluate the impact of age on receipt of chemotherapy among low-income individuals with metastatic colorectal cancer.

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Data Sources/Study Setting—North Carolina Medicaid enrollees with metastatic colorectal cancer diagnosed from 1999 to 2002 with colorectal as their only cancer (N=326). Study Design—Retrospective analysis using linked data from the North Carolina Cancer Registry and Medicaid claims. Data Collection/Extraction Methods—Outcomes were chemotherapy use within one year of diagnosis and time to initiation of chemotherapy. Cox regression models were fit to evaluate the association between chemotherapy use and age, stratifying for comorbidity, and adjusting for patient, community, and health services characteristics. Principal Findings—Compared to 67.4% of patients aged